Corporate Reporting in India

Publicly traded companies are subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The laws that govern the securities industry were established to provide transparency to investors, creditors and shareholders alike. According to Hoyle, Schaefer & Doupnik, (2015) there are seven major disclosure requirements, the first being a five-year summary of operations to encompass sales, assets, income from continuing operations. Followed by a description of business activities, a three year summary of industry segments to include foreign and domestic operations, a list of company directors and executives, quarterly market price of common stock for the last two years, restrictions on the company’s ability to continue paying dividends, and finally, an analysis of the company’s financial condition, changes in the conditions and results of operation.

Financial reports consist of a statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows, notes, directors' declaration, directors' report and the auditor's report. The financial statements need to be prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards, making the necessary disclosures in order to be transparent and fully inform readers about the activities and financial situation of the entity.

There are three kind of financial statements for companies which the content reflected different information. Among them, the first is the balance sheet, this statement reflects the financial situation of enterprises. For example, some of the listed companies wants to reflect good financial position in the statement, they will want to increase total assets, decrease accrued total liabilities, and then of course increase owners ' equity, making investors mistakenly believe the company has great investment value, thereby misleading public opinion and investors. Beside the balance sheet the other two financial statements are the income statement and cash flow statement. These two statements reflect the business situation of enterprises. The income statement is an important indicator to measure the performance of listed companies, it is closely related to the allotment and the profit. Therefore, in order to increase the profits of listed companies, they will have to Increase revenue, earnings, decrease expenses, costs and losses (Temte, 73). It helped increase tax evasion, embezzlement and other economic criminal activities. A large number of cases being investigated, all related to the accountants making the fake accounting entries. Therefore, the accounting credibility loss has restricted the development of the market economy. In a business, accountant often times handle the tax problem, so if

The most important thing to any company’s stakeholders is high-quality reporting of its financial statements. Investors, for instance, need to know the truth about a company in order to make an informed decision on whether to make private investment, buy stock or bonds. However, for stakeholders to get the truth about a company, they need to read and understand management’s discussion and analysis, the president’s letter, the notes, as well as the financial statements. Conversely, financial statements must be accompanied with disclosures to prevent them from misleading the stakeholders.

This report is written as a response to the monograph in which the ICAEW published on how financial accounting disclosures can be improved. The aim of this report is to critically discuss and evaluate the worthwhileness of the recommendations made from a financial investor’s perspective. It is done by reviewing recommendations put forward by the ICAEW and analysing if each of the disclosure recommended is worth the effort while putting in perspective what effects these recommendations have on professional investors who are one of the primary users and consumers of financial statements. The report contains information mainly from the ICAEW report and the CFA institute report

This standard outlines the presentation of financial statements for general purpose financial statements, in order to ensure that there is compariablity between the entities reporting periods as well as between other industries reports. The standard discusses the minimum requirement for reporting content and guidelines for the structure in which it is to be set at. Paragraph 117-124 distiguishes the disclosure of accounting policies in relation to judgement. Management’s judgement made in applying accounting policies that may have effected significant amounts found in financial statements and the financial position. Seen in paragraph 125-133 ‘Sources Of Estimation Uncertainty’, it is vital that entities disclose the key assumptions made regarding future prospects and other uncertain estimates that are used in identifying carrying amounts of assets and liabilities. Along side this, the nature and carrying amount must be disclosed at the reporting date.

In this paper, we analysed the target audience, big and small differences, content, and ways to improve the annual report. The Hershey Company’s Annual Report and 10K have many differences and few similarities, where each document is written to communicate financial statement disclosures to its intended audience.

Baruch Lev and Feng Gu authors of “The End of Accounting and The Path Forward for Investors and Managers” indicate that over the past 110 years, the structure and content of financial reports has not changed, and that the role that these reports play in influencing the decisions of investors has greatly diminished. Lev and Gu make a case that non-transaction events that are not captured by the financial reports such as those disclosed through 8-k filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) have a greater impact on stock prices, and thus more useful to investors. In addition, they suggest that one of reasons for the decline in usefulness of financial reports stems from the increase of estimates that has made its way into these reports (Lev and Gu 2016).

Single sets of accounting reports incentivise companies to lower reported profits as high profits attracts higher tax . This leads to conservative accounting values and understatement, lowering comparability and quality of annual reports. Thus, BHP Billiton, Suncor and Statoil’s annual reports provide better quality by separating accounting profit and taxable income

The purpose of this research report is to understand of two important concepts from the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting----the objective of general purpose financial reporting and qualitative characteristics of useful financial information. In this report, Myer Holdings Ltd is as an example to describe these two concepts. This report includes the analysis on whether the disclosure of PPE from Myer Holdings Ltd meets the requirements of AASB 116, especially the requirements of objective

In October 3, 2014 the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) issued proposed updates to the disclosure framework for the board decision process. This disclosure framework is meant to improve the effectiveness of disclosures in notes to financial statements. According to the disclosure framework effectiveness of the financial statements could be achieved by enhancing clarity in communication of information that is most important to users of each entity financial statements. FASB agrees that reduction in volume of the notes to financial statement is note the main objective but also does not refute the fact that concentration on the most important information in note will automatically lead to reduction in the volume of notes to financial statements (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2014).

Full disclosure is crucial in how markets recognize financial reporting. Investors and users of financial reporting rely on companies to provide complete, truthful, and transparent financial reporting without misleading information. The full disclosure principle is essential for an organization to

In any business operations, full financial disclosure refers to the provision of the necessary information about a company for better decision making by the people accustomed. It is the financial revelation of a given company. There are some financial disclosures in any business that ensure proper understanding of financial statements to the financial readers, or potential auditors. Examples are the annual financial reports and the financial declarations of the company. The annual financial reports of the enterprise are very useful since they discloses the revenues recognized in the business, and the accountability of the inventories plus the income taxes accounted for during that period of operation. Second, is the disclosure of this financial statements which gives the actual revelation of the company 's stock options, liabilities and the effects of foreign currencies?! This disclosure includes the company 's balance sheet of the year, income statements and also the cash statements flows of that year. This information gives a proper understanding of the financial status users about the effects of inflation and price change on property and inventories (Berger, 2011).

Financial reporting being my last module in this course has been quiet rewarding and beneficial as it provides comprehensive guidance for the acquisition of requisite knowledge and skill to appraise my current role as an accountant. The theories, concepts and ideas introduces new areas otherwise would not have been exposed to, for example, potential uses and limitations of Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). It laid solid foundation for the application of financial accounting, financial reporting and corporate governance in the course of my career as well provides a platform to enhance my understanding and competence in areas of financial reporting.

A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of